by Justin Charles
Convenor, Dalit and Adivasi Concern committee, CSI Synod
President, Christian Dalit Liberation Front

The Dalits of India trace our origin to the once dominating Dravidian race. The history of India records that the Dravidian stock inhabited the whole of India until about BC 1500. They were peace loving, owners of a rich cultural heritage and possessed a noble character. Many historians regard the Mohunjodaro civilization of Punjab dating back to BC 1500 as a Dravidian civilization. History says that it is at the climax of their glory that the Aryans of Persian origin started their movement to India. The Dravidians - the legal owners of the land could not withstand the Aryan expedition and that they were scattered to different parts of India, a large mass especially to the South. The invading Aryans, after established their supremacy over the original inhabitants, imposed and forced on them their customs and practices based on the Aryan religious system which today we call Hinduism. The most infamous institution their religious system forced on the subjugated people is caste. Since then caste has been the dominant factor in determining the social, political and economic status of the people. Based, on this four-fold Aryan religious institution, the Aryans were classified as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysia and Sudra. As the subjugated people could not be accommodated in to this system, they were treated as ‘avarna’ – which means nameless. They are ‘Non-existent,’ ‘no people,’ hence untouchable and polluted. The prominent among them are the Malas and Madigas of Andhra Predesh, the kols of Assam, the Santale of Bengal, and Bihar, orans of Bihar gonds and Bhils of central India holayas of karnataka, the Kuravas, Pargyas and Pulayas of Kerala, the konds and Pans of Orissa and the Churas of Punjab.

Not only does caste continue to exist in India even in this century of progress and development in all respects but also the disabilities arising out of caste discrimination also persist with the same oppressive severity. These introductory remarks will help this August Body, representing indigenous peoples of different Asian countries to understand our context – the Dalit context.

Dalit Context

The term ‘dalit’ has become common now a days both in the Indian and international theological circles. It is by this common title that all the people belonging to scheduled caste section of the Indian society are now known. What does the term ‘dalit’ mean? According to Mahatma Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890), a backward-caste Maratha social reformer, it is the outcastes or the untouchables who have exclusively adopted the nomenclature of ‘dalits.’ A.P. Nirmal, an Indian Christian theologian, attributes six groups of literal meanings to this term, viz. (1) bracken, torn, burst, split; (2) opened, expanded; (3) bisected; (4) driven asunder, dispelled, scattered; (5) trodden under, crushed, destroyed; and (6) manifested, displayed. This is quite nearer to what M.E. Prabhakar has to say about the position of the dalit. He says that "the word ‘dalit’ means the oppressed or broken victims and refers both to the people and their deprivation/ dehumanization. It becomes clear that ‘dalit’ is both a sociological and an economical category because they are the ones who are poor and oppressed in sociological and economic terms. In this context, ‘dalit’ can be a theological category too, because historically we the dalits are ‘no people’ and our position is similar to that of the people who come under the last category according to the purity laws described in the Book of Leviticus. The slaves, bastards, eunuchs and those with damaged sexual organs were regarded as genealogically unclean people. The theological importance of the dalit context becomes further apparent when we look into Jesus’ special concern for the poor. Again we were made strangers on our own native soil, deprived of our properties as well as our personal human dignity and basic human rights. This is again clear from the fact that we were classified as outcasts or panchamas (fifth caste) and hence regarded as untouchable and polluted.

Our position in society is vulnerable. Even in the post independence period of progress and development, society has not so far been able to integrate us into the main stream of national life. This becomes clear from the different epithets by which our living sectors are generally known. Our settlements are known as Cheri, Palli, Kudi and colony. This is similar to what Gandhi called us Harijan (god’s people). While Gandhi segregated us as Harijans, the constitution of India classified us as Scheduled Castes, All these names have stigmatized us further. Not only socially but religiously also we are deprived of our rights. We have title access to the Hindu temples, so we have our own temples and our gods are regarded as inferior and unclean as well. ‘Dalits’ sufferings and pathos are greater and deeper. Once, the dalits were not allowed to draw water from public wells. This prohibition is still being continued in some parts of India. In Kerala, our forefathers were supposed to have tied a small leafy branch of a tree around their waist when they walked along the dusty roads of the villages so that that branch might wipe away the foot prints made on the dusty roads. In short, even their shadows had been regarded as polluted. In Kerala, dalit women were not allowed to cover their body above waist. Again our forefathers were required to supply rice, vegetable and firewood free of cost to the oottupuras – the free feeding places of the Brahmins. They were not allowed to demand even the reasonable wages for the labour they put for the high caste people. This is the experience that our forefathers had undergone in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were not only oppressed and exploited but also they were dehumanized, marginalized and made untouchable. This was the sordid state of affairs when the European missionaries came to India.

Our forefathers embraced Christianity because the missionaries promised them a ‘European heaven’. They thought that the ‘European liberators’ would remain in India forever. It was to liberate themselves from oppression and our dehumanization and to attain the European heaven that our forefathers began to worship the ‘European God’. All of them had gone behind the curtain of ages with our fulfilling their long cherished aspirations. So also the present day dalits would do. Our hopes of a better tomorrow seem to be bleak.

After we embraced Christianity the amount of oppression and exploitation that we experienced had been doubled; viz., first from the unfriendly Government led and controlled by Hindus; and second from the Christians who came from the Hindu religious background. As far as Indian Christianity is concerned it is the dalits who responded more to the Christian gospel because the then preached gospel was regarded as a source of liberation to them. Thus we constitute more than 75% of the Indian Christian population.

The tragic fact is that we the Christian dalits are aliens in our own Church. Though we are numerically strong we are powerless and marginalized. It is painful that we are at the mercy of the minority masters. Theological education, medical work, charitable work and all other social works and even evangelistic work which originally were established for the welfare of the Christian dalits are now controlled, managed and administered by the powerful minority. That means all the benefits from these works go to the welfare of the members of the caste-minded Christian communities. So long as the Christian media remains to be the monopoly of the powerful minority, how will our feeble with the expression of full of grief and sorrow be heard! Thus an irreparable damage had been done to us and to our Church which is in exile.

One might find out a parallel of the sufferings of Christian dalits to that of Blacks in America and the Israelites in Egypt. It cannot be so. The sufferings and pathos that we undergo in India have no parallel in human history. In the American context the Blacks are a minority. Hence, there is no wonder in that it was easy for the Whites to exploit and oppress the Blacks. They were brought to America and were put under the service of the White masters as slaves. So, there is no room for wonder for the inhuman treatment meted out to them. The same was the background of the sufferings of Israelites in Egypt. They were a minority in the Pharaoh’s empire and the sole purpose of their existence was one of service to the Egyptians. Compared to the sufferings both these people experienced the sufferings of the dalits of India as a whole and that of the Christian dalits are more.

The Israelites had some rays of hope, whereas the Christian dalits cannot even dream of a hope. In the Israelites’ history God at certain times intervened in their life. Before God’s intervention pharaoh could do nothing but to ultimately set the oppressed free. In the Indian situation the oppressors are powerful and subvert all the plans of God. They do not allow God to intervene.

In the case of the Israelites, there was Moses who was equipped by God to liberate the people from bondage under Pharaoh. The aspect of equipping is important. But, in the case of the dalits especially that to Christian dalits, this aspect is nil. The making or carving out of a leader has become tragically impossible, because the Indian Church is controlled by the powerful Christian leaders of non-dalit origin. The condition of Christian dalits in Kerala is pathetic and miserable. Since the Church and the theological education system are dominated by our oppressors –the cast minded Christians ‘dalits’ hope of carving out of leaders from among themselves is far from materialization.

In the Kerala theological circles, where the Syrian Christian domination is at its height, dalit candidates who apply for admission to post-graduate and doctoral research studies are denied admission. Therefore, the Church in Kerala could so far not produce more than five M.Th. degree holders. The discrimination against caste is so rigid that not even a single dalit person could be admitted to research studies leading to doctoral degree. An interesting incident that took place recently to this effect may be mentioned. Among a few candidates who applied for D.Th. admission to the Federated Faculty for Research in Religion and Culture (F.F.R.R.C of the Senate of Serampore College), Kottayam, Kerala, one was a dalit. In spite of the fact that his performance in the entrance examination was good and he had satisfactorily fulfilled all other admission requirements like publication of scholarly articles and books, book review and guaranteed all financial commitments, he was mercilessly denied admission to which no reason was given. In fact he was the only one who had a number of publications to his credit and his answer papers were adjudged best. Why was such a person denied admission to an advanced course of study? The sufficient reason for the members of the admission committee constituted predominantly by Syrian Christians to deny admission to the particular person was that he was a dalit and his proposed research work was on dalits.

As mentioned above another reason for denying admission to the dalit candidate was that they feared the proposed research work would come out with shocking revelations of the cruelties done to the dalits in general and to the Christian dalits in particular within the Indian Church. Since the Christian media is controlled and dominated by the powerful oppressing community we, the dalits of the Christian Church are denied all opportunities of expressing our mind. An example to this effect may be mentioned in this context. An article on dalit theology had been sent to the editor of the Christava Deepika, the official magazine of the South Kerala Diocese. The editor outrightly refused to publish it simply because it was on dalits. This is dalit’s emotions and feelings are suppressed by the dominating community within the Indian Church. In this way the world community is prevented from hearing the feeble voice of our cries.

We do not expect mercy and sympathy from the so-called upper caste Christians who are our oppressors within the Church. Therefore, our cry is not for kindness rather justice and to honour the fundamental human rights. We would not have spoken of justice on their part had they been not taken up the position of a Christian minister. Therefore we doubt their very motive in identifying them selves with the oppressed and the marginalized in our struggles for better life as they are them selves oppressors and the arch enemies of the dalits. Now a days it has been their mere fashion to speak for the Dalits and claim that they are identifying with us in our struggles for social justice. If at all they speak on behalf of us that is merely for taking advantage for them selves. We can never trust them. We never take their words for granted. Dalit’s sufferings and pathos have no parallel in human history. Thus the Christian dalits of India especially of Kerala had been dehumanized. It is this context of the dalits that should be a driving force to think of a theological construction in dalit perspective.

Influence Of Social Background

The construction of any theology should see the importance of the Universality of the Gospel. This particular aspect is missing in almost all theologies that had so far been formulated by non-dalit Theologians. The universality they proclaim is the expression of their own particular social context. The bitter experiences that the dalits undergo are unimaginable to them and such people are unable to understand dalit mind in such contexts. The caste minded Christians cannot discern what is just and righteous when the Christian dalits struggle hard for justice. The reason for their failure is that their experiences are entirely different from that of the latter. Also there is another side of it. When educational opportunities are denied when higher positions in Church administration are denied to Christian dalits, when they are exploited in different ways and marginalized and kept away from the main stream of Church life, many a dalits are ignorant of such tragic dalit condition. The reason for their ignorance is that their mental faculty had already been mutilated. So that, there many not be any one from among the hapless lot who might rise up to lift his people up.

Raw Materials For A Dalit Theology

The raw material for a dalit theology is the intervention of God in the context of the deep agony of the dalits who lost everything until and after accepted they dalits who lost everything until and after they accepted the ‘Gospel of liberation’. The fundamental and basic problem in theology is always human liberation and justice. An enquiry of what the Gospel has to say about the condition of the oppressed should be the objective of all theological discussions. The first step in formulating a dalit theology is the formulator’s solidarity with the oppressed- the dalits. Unless one has a dalit experience of agony due to untouchability on caste basis how can one show his solidarity with the dalits? Unless undergoing a dalit experience of discrimination in all spheres a theology then formulated will never be a living theology. In the dalit theology the usage of the term ‘WE’ is stronger and authentic than the usage of the term ‘THEY’. In this context an example of paradox may be cited. In 1990 when there was a call from the central college of the Selly Oak colleges in Birmingham, U.K. for someone to teach Dalit Theology at the college, the Indian Church sent a Syrian Christian thinker to take up that position. Is its because there was no competent persons among the Christian dalit thinkers that a Syrian Christian who is our oppressor was sent to represent us? It is true that he had read extensively about dalits, but as he had no dalit experience, what he taught would not have life in it. How can such a person present a dalit before his international student community? The international Christian community is always given a distorted impression of the dalit issue by the Indian Church dominated by a few powerful high caste Christians who trace their origin in Aryanism. Now it has become a style for such people to read, write and speak on behalf of the dalits, who do not have even a pinch of concern for dalits. We are aware that they do this to gain popularity. This is a grave crime on their part because they deliberately conceal the facts related to dalits. Thus they have devised a new method to exploit the already dehumanized people.

Theology is meant not for God rather it is for man. Therefore Dalit Theology should begin from the life situation of the dalits. The exponents of the so-called ‘Indian Christian Theology’ formulated their theology relating to the philosophical thinking of Hinduism. As it has no appeal what so ever to the oppressed mass that theology remained dried and lifeless. As it failed to devote a little space for the word of God in it, it met with a tragic end. Therefore the dalit theologians should never forget to reveal to the people the tragic failure of the so-called Indian Christian Theology. At the same time they should begin to reread the word of God by relating it to their life contact. Dalit Theology is an enquiry in to what change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings about to the Indian dalit community. Therefore, the need of the hour to the emergence of a Dalit Theology unblemished by the touch of a Syrian Christian theologian.

Dalit Theology rests on the tenets of the dalit belief that’s a dalit belongs to the new Israel – the Christian dalits who are chosen by God for the manifestation of God’s activity in this world. Our belief is that it is by faith that we have reached this stage after passing a long way of hurdles and sorrows. By leaning on the God of our slave and untouchable fore fathers we have overcome all our bitter experiences of slavery, bonded labour, untouchability, poverty, torture and brutalism of our task masters both within and outside the Christian Church. It is because of the God of our faith that made possible for us to attain our personality that our oppressors could so far not ruin. The awareness that we are only subjected to God alone emboldened at least a few of us to fight for justice even in our reverses. We are certain that Jesus Christ heals our bruised souls and crushed hearts. What ever be our tests of sufferings we will never allow disappointment and desperatedness to define our personality and humanness. We believe that God who prepared a high way across the Red Sea for the Israel to reach the land of hope in still active in human history.

It is this deep and firm faith in our liberator God that is the foundation of the dalit theology of all our struggles for justice. We reject out rightly and ignore our taskmasters’ teaching and pseudo promises of a life after death.

The hard work of dalits in the creation of an Indian society is decisive. The reward that the high caste society awarded to the untouchables for shedding their sweat and blood in the agricultural fields, in the cattle sheds of the caste people, in the tanneries and in cleaning the public places by removing human excreta were torture and oppression which caused to their dehumanization. It is in this context that the gospel reached the dalits. The reason for us to show a leaning tendency towards the Gospel was that we believed that the Gospel would liberate us from our existing situation and effect a recreation because the core subjects of the Gospel is liberation.

We are relating the forces of liberation to Jesus Christ in whom we find a real liberator. We firmly believe that Jesus Nazareth manifest (Luke 4:18, 19) is meant exclusively for us; because there were no poor, nor slaves, nor blind, nor oppressed among the high caste people when this proclamation was made. Jesus said, " I came not to call the righteous but sinners" (Matt 9:13). Hinduism says the suffering of a person is the result of his Karna. The same view is held generally by the Christians of high caste origin too. Therefore, we take the Nazareth manifesto to be the herald of our liberation. Then we are strengthened by the word of God depicted in the scripture.

We believe that the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt made God to take them as his own people. Slavery and the consequent oppression had been the inevitable context for God’s own revelation. This is evident from Ex. 3:7,8 which says, " I have seen the affliction of my people, who are in Egypt and have heard their cry, because of their task masters: I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the Egyptians". God has not limited his intervention with the age of the slavery in Egypt. He had been active in all contexts of the Israelites’ oppression. The prophetic proclamations at different times reveal God’s righteousness and justice. They fought for social justice. He turned back all the unjust courses of history and pulled down all the unjust structures in society to re create the history constantly. It is liberation, the central theme of the Old Testament that is the main theme of the New Testament too. It presents Jesus Christ as a liberator (LK 4: 18,19). The kingdom of God is the state of reality of liberation. That was indeed the central theme of Jesus’ teachings.

Since Jesus Christ was a liberator, those who follow Him have to share the same responsibility. The real mutual identification is possible only when both parties are undergoing the same kind of experience. Jesus underwent the worst of all human sufferings. The depth of his agony would be understood by dalits alone. Therefore, in that sense dalits alone can become the real Christians. The responsibility of this suffering community is to bear witness to all the activities of liberation and to prepare the other suffering people to know God by taking part in the works of liberation. The history of the Israelites depicts the picture of God as identifying himself with the Israelites as they were an oppressed people. If that is what the Old Testament says, the New Testament narratives provide us a hope of resurrection, i.e., a day would come for all the oppressed people to attain the position of God’s own people. If our taskmasters promised the hope in an eschatological sense, we hope for God’s intervention here and now, i.e., the consummation of people’s co-existence in love, peace and justice.

As far as dalits are concerned, any theological thought if formulated relating to an Indian Hindu philosophical system is meaning less, because it is this philosophical system that was used by own oppressors humiliate us. The so-called Indian Christian Theology had only been made to safeguard the interests of the high caste Christian people. Our experiences of sufferings and agony are a reality. The Indian theological thinkers were blind to see our reality. Their theological thought had miserably failed to provide us consolation and hope though we constitute more than seventy five percent of the Indian Christian population; so, there is no wonder in the crumbling down of that’s theological system.

When a theological thought that is deep rooted in solidarity with the suffering people is born that theology becomes a theology for the oppressed – the dalits in the Indian context. Therefore, the liberation of the dalits is the liberation of God himself, i.e., the God of the oppressors is liberated to be the God of this own people – the dalits. In that sense the theology of the oppressed is a theology of their liberation. At the same time it is a Christian theology too. We believe that Christian dalits are the real people of God – the new Israel. The very essence of the Gospel is liberation. There fore, the OBJECT in the Gospel narratives is none other than the oppressed – the dalits in the Indian context. Jesus said, "I came to save not the righteous but the sinners". The dalits are regarded as sinners because our dalitness is the consequence of Karna. Again, Jesus said, "physician is needed not for the healed, but for the sick". Further Jesus reminded through the story of the lost sheep that he ventured in search of the lost are learning behind all the ninety nine sheep which are in safe position. This is the reason why we believe that this alone is the Christian theology in the real sense. Therefore, we just reject all other theological expressions as mere intellectual exercises, which have no life in them.

We are confronted with the question of our very existence. In the midst of all threats we are some how surviving. Therefore, a theology should evolve for dalits from their context. We are in an unending struggle between life and death due to oppression, Socially, Politically, economically and religiously even. Dalits are destined to restless hard work. In the midst of which have no intervals for enjoyment. We have to go starting if we do not get work. Therefore, poverty is the experience of all dalits. The consequence of poverty is our death. Thus the dalits have no existence. Therefore, the main problem that confronts us is whether to live or die. As far as we the dalits are concerned it is a reality that we are dying to live on. This is a paradox in fact.